News & Record
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The way to fix North Carolina’s probation system is not to send more criminals to prison.
State prisons already are filled with nearly 40,000 inmates. More space is being added very slowly and at a high cost.
Meanwhile, more than 113,000 offenders are on probation. Their numbers are growing, overwhelming the probation officers available to supervise them.
State Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, proposed a partial solution this week. The Eden attorney, whose district includes much of Guilford County, filed a bill that would give all law-enforcement officers a larger role in checking probationers.
The measure might raise civil liberties concerns. It would authorize officers to carry out warrantless searches of offenders on probation - their person, their vehicles, their premises. The only restrictions: These searches would have to be at “reasonable times,” and the probationer would have to be present.
For most of these offenders, however, submitting to warrantless searches is a condition of their probation. The only difference under the Berger proposal is that they might be subject to more frequent searches.
Offenders who have not agreed to that condition may retain constitutional protection from Berger’s proposal. That point would have to be clarified before this bill could be enacted.
Otherwise, the measure gives a potentially big boost to a system that’s overwhelmed by numbers. Probation officers can’t effectively manage caseloads that approach or sometimes exceed 100 individuals. Too many probationers aren’t supervised closely and commit crimes again and again.
Local police officers and sheriff’s deputies often know who they are. If they can stop and search a probationer, without probable cause or a warrant, they might find guns, drugs or other evidence of illegal activities. More importantly, their ability to do that might deter probationers from carrying guns or committing other crimes.
The greatest value of Berger’s initiative is its potential, not just for increasing arrests, but for preventing crime.
The state can’t afford to substantially increase the prison population. It must significantly enlarge its force of probation officers, but there’s no money available to do that soon. Because the supply of criminals isn’t shrinking, unfortunately, more of them must be put on probation. While police officers cannot and should not do the work of probation officers, they can help ease the workload by conducting periodic warrantless searches of known probationers.
The result might be the best possible outcome for everyone: less crime.
* State Sen. Phil Berger files a bill giving law-enforcement officers authority to conduct warrantless searches of probationers. The idea might deter crime.
Copyright 2009 News & Record (Greensboro, NC)